Canada should follow U.K., block Internet porn by default: MP

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A Manitoba MP says Canada should follow the U.K.'s lead and require Internet service providers to introduce a default filter to block pornography unless an adult chooses to opt out.

In a recent speech, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to block pornographic content from home Internet connections, saying easy access to sexual imagery is giving young people "distorted ideas about sex."

Cameron also announced new requirements for search engines to block all results for users looking for images, video or other content related to rape, or child porn.

Joy Smith, a Conservative MP for Kildonan-St. Paul, said Cameron is on the right track and Canada should follow suit.

"Child exploitation, human trafficking is a worldwide issue," Smith told CTV's Canada AM. "The Internet is being used to harm children and I think this is just a common sense approach, another tool that parents can have to protect their children."

Critics have complained the move amounts to censorship, placing limits on what people can search for or look at in their own home.

Smith disagreed.

"It doesn't censor an adult at all, because all the adult has to do in his home or her home is walk over to their computer, log on and check a little box that shuts the filter down. But it does protect the children," she said.

She said studies have shown that most children, by age 12, have seen pornography -- often by accident.

In his speech on the subject Monday, Cameron said more than one-third of children in the U.K. have received a sexually explicit text or email, and one quarter said they had seen pornography that upset them.

"As a father I am extremely concerned by this," Cameron said.

Smith said she isn't a Luddite; in fact she spoke to Canada AM via Skype on Wednesday morning. But she did say: "the fact of the matter is, we have to be responsible citizens and it's our responsibility to protect our most vulnerable citizens, our children."

Smith said she has not yet spoken to Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the issue, but said she hopes to "start a conversation" with Canadian Internet service providers, search engine companies, and Canadians about what can be done "to better protect our children.

"It's not about censorship at all, it's about protecting the children, plain and simple," she said.

Under the changes already agreed to by the U.K.'s largest Internet providers:

The default filter setting will be "on" for all new Internet connections;

By the end of 2014, all existing customers will have to choose whether to install the family-friendly filter;

Only someone 18 or older, who set up the account, can choose to remove the filter;

Mobile phones will automatically block adult content;

Family-friendly filters will be applied to all public Wi-Fi connections;

All devices using a home Wi-Fi connection will also block adult content.